1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to portable radios and MP3 players, and more particularly to such devices specifically designed for use in a bed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many couples who sleep in a single bed fall asleep listening to a nightstand radio. Because one person may want to sleep or read and not want to listen to the radio or to a particular station chosen by the other person, many individuals listen to the radio with an earphone or pillow speaker.
If a person is unable to sleep, he or she usually tries to lay still and avoid movements or activities that will disturb the other person. One activity that often wakes up the other person is the act of turning on a radio or turning the radio to different radio stations.
Radio programs typically run for several consecutive hours during the day and night. Typically, the programs include entertainment segments that are divided by commercials and news breaks that are one to five minutes in length. The commercials and news breaks normally occur at regular intervals in the program. The lengths of the commercials and new breaks in the program are typically the same each day. To a frequent listener of the program, listening to the same commercials in the program repeated every hour and every day, can be very annoying. Therefore, one or more mute buttons that are conveniently located on a radio that can selectively mute the sound for predetermine length of time, would be highly desirable.
What is needed is an audio entertainment device that can be used by one or both individuals lying in a bed that enables one or both individuals to selectively operate and listen to different audio sources which does not disturb the other person trying to sleep or read. What is also needed is an audio entertainment device that can selectively mute during commercials or news casts during certain programs.